Part 3

[Sidenote: _Ulcers from burnings._]

I once knew a large ulcer in the foot, made by the running of melted brass into the shoe, that was kept in hand by a surgeon nine weeks, without any probability of healing, because of the great inflammation that attended it; but the party, being a lover of angling, was persuaded to go with some others to Hackney-river: Some of them went bare-legged into the water, to come at a certain hole where much fish was sometimes found. The sport was so good, that the lame man having pulled off his stockings and plaisters, went in also, where he staid above two hours, and coming out again, the ulcer, which appeared very red and angry when he went in, looked pale; he put on his dressings, and came home, and in less than a fortnight his ulcers healed up; which doubtless was occasioned by the abating of the inflammation by the coldness of the water. And I have had an account also from an acquaintance, that was a surgeon to a merchant ship, that their gunner, at a time when the captain treated some friends on board, going to charge a gun that just before had been fired off, the cartridge he was ramming down took fire, whereby he was blown into the water, and had some of his fingers torn off, and it was about an hour before a boat could be got to take him up: But they found that the coldness of the water had almost stopt the bleeding, and the cure was effected so speedily, that other surgeons wondered at it; which he imputed to the water, which kept back the humours, by its coldness, from flowing to the part at the first: So that there was no impediment, from inflammation, to hinder healing; for the chief impediment to healing, is inflammation in wounds or ulcers. Moreover, to bathe with cold water, is affirmed by Dr. Lower to be a sovereign remedy for any hot swelling, if continued a due time at the first beginning; and it is affirmed also to be a good cure for the cramp.

[Sidenote: _Hot swellings._]

[Sidenote: _Sprains and hot swellings._]

And as for strains and sprains in the joints, cold water affords the best and most speedy remedy, as Van Heydon affirms; who saith, that, by bathing in cold water, all harm so received may by this remedy be cured more safely and more speedily than by any other, without loss of time, cost or trouble; for no more is to be done, as I have often found, than, as soon as can be, to put the part into a vessel of cold water for about two hours, which will prevent all swelling and pain, by repelling or keeping back the humours that otherwise would flow to the part. And if it should be the shoulder, or any other part, which is so hurt, that cannot well be immersed in water after this manner; water may be applied, by dipping towels folded up into it, and laying them to the part, as is done, in effect, to the wrenched joints of horses, about which, if you wind oftentimes a thick rope made of hay, and then cast upon it divers times a pail of cold water, the wrench will be cured; which experiment is now commonly practised by those concerned about horses.

[Sidenote: _Sprains in horses._]

[Sidenote: _Weakness of the joints._]

Bathing in cold water hath also been found to be a good remedy to strengthen weakness in the joints, as Sir John Floyer, in his treatise of _Cold Bathing_, hath shewed; and which by experience I found to be true on a certain woman, who complained of great weakness and pain in her ancles: I advised her to dip the part in cold water every morning for a quarter of an hour, and do the same at night; and in about twenty days she became as strong in that part as she was in the other. And Sir John tells us of a boy who could not stand, his limbs were so weak, that, by bathing in cold water, perfectly recovered his strength in a little time.

[Sidenote: _Pain in the head._]

Great pain in the head hath been also cured by this means; for we are told by Van Heydon, that Sir Toby Matthews had for twenty years been troubled with great pain in one side of his head, and a great defluxion of rheum from his nose: but he at last was cured, by applying cold water to the part every day for about a quarter of an hour: Upon reading of which, I tried the experiment upon myself, who for a long time had been troubled with the running of much clear water from my nose, with great spitting of thin rheum; for I let a water-cock run upon the mould of my head every morning, by which, in about six weeks time, I was eased of my trouble. And since that, I had a credible information of a certain servant maid, who was afflicted greatly with a rheumatism, and an intolerable pain in the head, who being put into St. Thomas’s Hospital, her nurse was ordered by the doctor to apply to her head towels four times double, dipt in cold water, changing them as they became warm, which she was to continue doing four or five hours; in which time she was freed from that pain in the head, and was afterwards cured of the rheumatism by other means.

[Sidenote: _Want of sleep in fevers._]

The want of sleep in fevers, may be cured likewise by the application of cold water: For to a near relation in a fever, who could not sleep for three days and three nights, I ordered a towel to be several times folded up, then to be dipped in water, and a little wrung out, and so laid upon her forehead, and to be new dipped as it grew hot; which in about two hours time so cooled her head, that she fell into a sleep, and continued in it five hours: And I ordered the same to be done the next night, with the same success. Dr. Cockburn, in his treatise of _Sea-diseases_, orders, for the want of sleep in fevers, to dip a towel four times doubled in oxycrat, which is six parts water and one part vinegar, to be bound about the head and temples; which, he saith, will cause sleep with wonderful success. But cold water only will have the same effect, as I often have proved.

[Sidenote: _Swoonings._]

And that the use of cold water, in swooning, is of great effect, common experience teacheth: For, if a dish or cup of cold water is thrown strongly upon the face, the person in an instant will recover, tho’ for a time he seemeth dead, and perhaps might not have recovered in some cases, if cold water had not been so applied; such faintings being sometimes deadly, which proceed from poisonous vapours ascending up to the brain from a foul stomach: For such effects there are, as I have found by experience, who in my young days did swoon away twice; at both which times I was sensible of a collection of wind in my stomach, from whence I plainly felt a fume or vapour ascend to the head, that in an instant deprived me of all sense: But being both times in the company of a person who had seen the thing tried, he dashed some cold water against my face, which I remember made me start, as if I had been suddenly awaked. And I am apt to think, that some die in such a fit, when none are near to help them; and especially when so taken in their sleep, which I believe none need fear, who live temperately, or that eat no suppers; none who have refrained from suppers; having been ever found to die in their sleep.

[Sidenote: _Bleedings at the nose._]

Dangerous bleedings at the nose have also been cured with cold water largely drank, syringing cold water up their nostrils, and applying towels round their necks dipt in cold water, changing them as they grow warm; for it is said by a good writer, that this will so cool the heat of the blood, and by the coldness of the water syringed, up the nose, so contract the mouths of the veins which bleed, that it will put a stop to the bleeding. Such bleedings have also been stopt by dashing cold water often in the face, as a French writer hath affirmed, whose name was Flammand; and the same also is asserted by Cook, in his _Marrow of Surgery_.

[Sidenote: _Small cuts._]

Cold water is an absolute cure for all small cuts, in the fingers, or other parts; for if you close the cut up with the thumb of your other hand, keeping it so closed for a quarter or half an hour, this will infallibly stop the bleeding: After which, if you double up a linen-rag five or six times, dip it in cold water, and apply it to the part, binding it on; this, by preventing inflammation and a flux of humours, will give nature time soon to heal it without any other application, as is seen in the common practice of surgeons when they let a man blood; for all the application they make to the vein so cut, is a pledget of linen dipped in cold water, and bound on with a fillet: For all wounds, without loss of substance, will heal of themselves, if inflammation be prevented, and the lips of the wound are kept close together.

[Sidenote: _Bitings of a mad dog._]

We are also informed by Van Heydon, that in his time some were of an opinion, that a person bit by a mad dog might be preserved from that symptom, called, the fear of water, which generally follows, and proves so mortal, by applying cold water to the place bitten: And this, he says, they conceive to be no unlikely thing, if there is any credit to be given to what Cornelius Celsus writes, who saith, that the only remedy in this case is, to throw the party who hath the fear of water upon him, into a pond or river, and, when plunged over head and ears, to keep him in the water till filled with it, whether he will or no; and by this means both his thirst and dread of water will be cured. For, if this immersion be of use when the person is so far gone, why should it not be of greater force in preserving from it, if speedily applied, and repeated? Now, tho’ this is mentioned by him as a probable opinion, yet experience in our days shews, that the plunging the patient into the salt water, either of the river of Thames about Gravesend, or in the salt springs in Cheshire, is the best means to prevent any evil succeeding the bite of a mad dog; they must indeed be dipped so often, as to be almost drowned before the danger is over: But it is a question whether the saltness of the water contributes any thing to this cure, since Boerhaave, the present professor at Leyden, affirms, that when men bitten by a mad dog are arrived to the fear of water, called an hydrophobia, they may be cured by blinding the patient’s eyes, and throwing of him into a pond of water often, till he seems not to be afraid of it, or but very little, and then force him to drink large quantities.

[Sidenote: _Falling-sickness._]

And we are told by Dr. Edward Browne, that a person troubled with the falling-sickness, by happening to fall into a cold spring, (I suppose it was in the time of his fit) was freed from his distemper all his life after: And he saith, there is no need of preparing the body for it in this, as in some other cases. But the patient, when plunged into a cold bath, ought to continue in the bath each time about three or four minutes; for, in plunging over head and ears at his first entrance into a cold bath, the brain will be so sensibly affected, as to be relieved from the distemper, which is a kind of convulsion proceeding from an inflammation, or some other cause; but we want more experiments to confirm this notion: which notion may be worth noticing, that the thing may be tried in others, to see if it will succeed as it did in this person. For it is said by the ingenious Dr. Pitcairn, a Scotsman, sometime professor at Leyden, that there is no such thing as the art of curing, but only the practice; remedies were found out by chance, p. 264, of his works. For when remedies thus happen to be discovered, and prove often to be effectual, the remembering that remedy, to apply it in a like case of practice, brings reputation to the prescriber; but, if it fails, some other experiment must be tried, which, were physic an art, need not be done, because the rules of art are certain, and men depend upon them as such.

[Sidenote: _Madness & melancholy._]

It is also said by the same Dr. Browne, that madness and melancholy, with all their retinue, may find better effects from the use of bathing in cold water, than from other violent methods, with which people so afflicted are now treated; for, says he, that which will make a drunken man sober in a minute, will certainly go a great way towards the cure of a madman in a month. Now it is most certain, to my own knowledge, that, if a drunken man be plunged over head and ears in cold water, he will come out of it perfectly sober: And some I have known, that in such cases have been recovered by barely washing their heads in cold water. Which fore-mentioned opinion of Dr. Browne is confirmed by the practice of Dr. Blair, who, in a letter to Dr. Baynard, declares, that he cured a man raving mad, who being bound in a cart, stript off his clothes, and blindfolded, that the surprise might be the greater; he on a sudden had a great fall of water let down upon him from the height of twenty foot, under which he continued so long as his strength would permit: And, after his return home, he fell into a sleep, and slept twenty-nine hours, and awaked in as quiet a state of mind as ever, and so had continued to the time of writing that letter, which was twelve months. Distraction also in fevers, of which there are divers instances in the history of _Cold Baths_, has been cured by being plunged in cold water. _See p. 226._

Which relation seems to make that a more probable truth, which was related in a letter from Sir John Floyer, to Dr. Browne, and printed by that doctor; that in Normandy they immerse fools, or dip them in cold water to cure them: A hot brain being the cause, perhaps, of several disorders in the understanding, and is in great part found to be true in the ridiculous behaviour of some drunken men, which, when their heads are become cool, abhor what they before did or said. Now, if such dipping would cure fools among us, great numbers might be made more happy than they are by being so dipped, before they have beggared themselves by imprudence.

[Sidenote: _King’s-evil._]

Dr. Browne, in his discourse of _Cold Baths_, affirms, that to bathe in cold water hath been found to be the quickest, safest, and pleasantest cure for the king-evil; and he tells us, in p. 85, of a Yorkshire gentleman, who was grievously afflicted with this distemper, having great ulcers in the glands of his neck, which were so much inflamed, as to bring him very low; but, being advised by Dr. Baynard to bathe in the cold bath, he in a month’s time was perfectly cured, his ulcers being healed up, contrary to the opinion of the most learned physicians.

[Sidenote: _Jaundice, swelling, inflamed eyes, and pains in the joints._]

We also find mention, in the description of the Scottish Islands, of an odd remedy commonly made use of there for the cure of the Jaundice; which is this: They strip the party naked, lay him upon the ground on his belly, and pour unawares upon his back a pail of cold water. And also pains in the joints, as Dr. Curtis tells us, will be cured, by holding the part under the stream of a pump or cock; and fomenting with cold water, is commended as good to assuage hot swellings. And I know a person who had often been subject to blood-shot or inflamed eyes, who afterwards, upon the beginning of the same distemper, took, by advice, a ball of linen rags, dipped them in cold water, and applied them to the part, cooling them by new-dipping as oft as they grew hot: Which application was continued three hours, in which time the humour was so repelled, as to be troublesome no more; for the party, to my knowledge, hath had no sign of that distemper since, tho’ the same had been very troublesome many times before: And the same others have tried with the like success.

[Sidenote: _Defluxions on the eyes._]

It is also advised by Dr. Gideon Harvey to wash the eyes well twice a day in cold water, as the best remedy to prevent defluxions on them, and preserve the eye-sight, which it greatly comforts. And this I have found true for many years, my eyes being often apt to be dim and stiff, so that I could scarce open my eye-lids; which, upon washing for a minute with fair water, hath been felt no more for a good while after. Besides which benefit to the eyes, authors say, it is also good to preserve the memory, if the whole forehead be washed twice a day; and it is also a certain cure for itching in the eyes. And indeed, washing with water will free mankind from a troublesome itching in any other part of the body, let it be never so private; as Cook, in his _Observations on English bodies_, doth expresly declare from experience. And Wedelius affirms, that violent itching in a man’s cod was so cured by him; and, if the other sex would make use of it, a single life would be less uneasy than it seems to be to some.

[Sidenote: _Callosity & sore feet._]

Some people are troubled with a callosity, or hardness of the bottom of their feet, which is so troublesome, as to be a hindrance to their easy walking; for which a cure is prescribed by Dr. Cook, that is, to soak them well in warm water, till the hardness is softened, and then scrape it off with the edge of a knife: And if the feet burn with any unnatural heat, and are tender, it was advised by Mr. Rumsey, in his _Organon Salutis_, to bathe them daily in cold water. Others affirm, that to bathe tender feet often in hot water will cool them, by giving vent to that which is offensive; and it is useful in a cough.

[Sidenote: _Scurvy._]

The plentiful drinking of water is commended in the scurvy, whether hot or cold, by Dr. Pitcairn, to dissolve the scorbutic salts, and carry them out by urine; but this is a distemper that Dr. Cheyne affirms is difficult to cure, that nothing but a total abstinence from flesh, fish, and strong liquor, will overcome the scurvy, p. 127, whether they are acids or alkalies. But tho’ weakness and faintness commonly attends on this distemper, yet myself, who have been formerly extremely troubled with the scurvy, which often made me faint and weak, and my pulse so low as scarcely to be felt, found at last that the pulse would infallibly rise upon drinking a pint or more of cold water, and in a little time I should again become brisk and strong: for I have often observed, that, upon a disorder of the stomach, the strength of the bodily members soon would fail, and as easily be recovered when the disorder of the stomach was removed; which requires temperance and cooling diet, when distempered, especially in drink.

[Sidenote: _Asthma & consumption._]

To what hath been already said, I will add an account, taken from a credible person, of a man in the parish of Shoreditch, who was desperately ill of an asthma, or shortness of breath, and deep consumption, for which he had tried many remedies to no purpose. At length he was advised by a physician, being poor, to drink no drink but water, and eat no other food but water-gruel, without salt or sugar; which course of diet he continued for three months, finding himself at first to be somewhat better, and at the three months end he was perfectly cured; but, for security’s sake, he continued in that diet a month longer, and grew fat and strong upon it. But his diet he had no mind to till he was thoroughly hungry, and then he did eat it with pleasure; in which perhaps consisted the best part of his cure, it being an advantage to health never to eat till hunger calls for food.

[Sidenote: _Cough cured._]

And I remember a young woman, a burnisher of silver, who had a desperate cough, for which she had taken many things of an apothecary to no purpose; at length the journeyman told her, his master said, he could do no more:

But, said the fellow, I would advise you every morning to wash behind your ears, and upon your temples, and on the mould of your head, with cold water: which she told me she did, and was perfectly cured of her cough by that means. And for a hoarseness that comes upon a cold, the dipping of a handkerchief five times double in very hot water, and holding it to the mouth and nose, new-dipping it as it becomes cold, is commended by Dr. Alexander Read as a good remedy.

[Sidenote: _Hoarseness._]

[Sidenote: _Difficulty in making water._]

There are divers other cases wherein the use of water hath done much good. An ancient practiser in physic told me, that in many difficulties of making water, he had advised the party to put his yard into water as hot as he could endure it, which in a minute did cause him to make water; and that women have had the same benefit by sitting over hot water. And he often had advised them who were costive, and went to stool with great difficulty, to sit over a pot with hot water in it; which soon was attended with an easy dejection of stool, the body drawing up the vapour, which provoked expulsion of the excrements without much straining.

[Sidenote: _Costiveness._]

[Sidenote: _Children unquiet._]

And it hath been observed, that froward children have been made much more quiet, by washing their lower parts every morning with water, to wash off the salts of their urine, which usually stick in the pores of the skin, and are fretful and uneasy; and nothing cures their soreness about those parts like it. Nor is there any thing more effectual to cure men who are gauled by riding, than to wash themselves well when they go to bed with cold water; and washing the bare breast every morning with cold water, will make those hardy who before were apt at every turn to take cold. To which I will add what Sir Theodore Mayhern affirms in his _Medicinal Counsels_, that in most diseases